Having the correct and sufficient first aid personnel and equipment within the workplace is a very serious matter. Some smaller companies and establishments may not take it as seriously as they should. They can sometimes overlook first aid as not being vital for the company. Those responsible for first aid in the workplace can be guilty of focusing on passing audits rather than actually being prepared for an emergency situation.

According to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) in 2017, there were over 600,000 non-fatal injuries that occurred at work, excluding the ones that weren’t recorded. So, right up until an accident occurs a company can blindly ignore it’s first aid needs. However, if businesses were also aware that 31.2 million working days were lost in 2017 due to work-related ill health and non-fatal workplace injuries, they might rethink their approach to first aid. Having the correct personnel, equipment and guidelines within the company is not just beneficial to the staff, but it’s a legal requirement that the company must comply.

Preparation for serious bleeding wounds in the workplace

The HSE’s guidelines are the most authoritative guide to First Aid in the workplace. The guidelines are constantly being updated and this year is no different. The 2018 amendments to its L74 ‘First Aid at Work’ have been amended to include whether haemostatic dressings and tourniquets are needed in a company’s first aid equipment. This means when risk assessing your company’s needs, you must consider whether these tools are needed and who needs to be trained in their use.

Haemostatic (bleeding control) dressings and tourniquets are not generally found within a normal workplace first aid kit. However, there could be scenarios, dependant on many factors about the workplace, where these two items would be necessary and could literally save lives.

Sectors such as the food industry, warehouse staff, lone or remote workers, especially those using tools or machinery. Forestry workers with chainsaws will need this equipment as they could be well away from any immediate help or emergency facilities should a serious accident occur.

Steroplast make sure you get the right trauma products

At Steroplast we have a wide range of first aid and trauma products to fulfil your company’s needs. Your first step would be to risk assess your workplace and each section individually (office staff, warehouse staff or staff that may work offsite). Then once you have an idea of what you need we can provide it.

To give you a little advice, here is a little information about one of our premium first aid kits, a tried and tested, simple to use tourniquet and a very effective haemostatic dressing that we are confident would suit your workplace.

S.T.A.T. Tourniquet

Applying pressure to a wound is the most important thing you can do to stop the bleeding. Therefore, the new S.T.A.T tourniquet is the latest and best solution, plus it’s easy to use. S.T.A.T is the only tourniquet on the market that can be used on limb sizes as small as 20mm. It’s intuitive design makes it simple to use, even for an untrained individual. The tourniquet itself has an added benefit of the “Timestrip”. This can be started once applied, and indicates to hospital staff how long it has been on the patient.

ChitoSAM 100 dressings control bleeding in minutes. The superior performance haemostatic dressing is made of non-woven 100% “Chitosan”. It is designed to stop lethal bleeding fast. Chitosan works independantly from the body’s normal clotting process.

Access to ChitoSAM is made easier, as you can literally tear the packaging on any side and it will open. The dressing is easily removed with water or saline solution. Each dressing is sterile and comes individually wrapped. For more information about the dressing click here.